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Diablo Dam incline railway climbing Sourdough Mountain, 1930. Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives, 2306.
Children waving to ferry, 1950. Courtesy Museum of History and Industry.
Loggers in the Northwest woods. Courtesy Washington State Digital Archives.

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This Week Then

3/21/2024

Oso Landslide, March 22, 2014

News Then, History Now

Out at the Cape

On March 22, 1778, Captain James Cook gave Cape Flattery its current name after he unwittingly missed the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Captains Robert Gray and George Vancouver met near the same spot 14 years later. Vancouver left to explore Puget Sound and Gray went on to find the Columbia River.

Good for the Grape

On March 26, 1892, three years after Walter Granger organized the Yakima Land and Canal Company, water gushed into the Sunnyside Canal for the first time. Farmers and orchardists soon established themselves along the canal, and although the Panic of 1893 slowed work on expanding the irrigation system, it eventually led to bountiful harvests in the Yakima Valley, and later proved beneficial for the state's wine industry.

A City Takes Shape

After Quincy was established as a stop on the Great Northern Railway line in 1892, an influx of homesteaders began settling in the area. By the turn of the century, the growing community had a hotel, general store, real-estate office, lumber yard, livery stable, and hardware store. On March 27, 1907, residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of incorporation and elected the first town officials.

Wedding Day

A century ago, marriages between men and women of different races were banned by many states, including California, where Gunjiro Aoki and Gladys Emery fell in love. The press tracked their elopement to Seattle, where they tied the knot on March 27, 1909, at Trinity Parish Church.

Here to Play

On March 26, 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans hockey team – coached by Pete Muldoon – won the Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Les Canadiens Habitants three games to one. Both teams played in the Stanley Cup finals two years later, but the championship match was cancelled after five games – the last being held on March 29, 1919 – due to that era's flu pandemic.

News to Convey

Seattle's first underground newspaper, Helix, hit the streets on March 23, 1967. It was founded by Paul Dorpat and published over the next three years by a band of co-conspirators (in)famous for also dropping pianos from helicopters and staging multi-day outdoor rock festivals.

Today in
Washington History

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Image of the Week

Early day Bridgeport

Bridgeport incorporated on March 21, 1910.

Quote of the Week

"Daily it is forced home on the mind of the geologist that nothing, not even the wind that blows, is so unstable as the level of the crust of this Earth."

–Charles Darwin

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